Utilizing a preparation application has become a popular method of preparing a return, such as a tax return, for filing with an authority. Typically, preparation applications will present a series of questions or prompts to a user in order to obtain the necessary information to complete a return. Multiple interview segments (e.g., one or more screens of the preparation application) may include questions or prompts. Thus, to complete a return, the preparation application may present the multiple interview segments to the user. Typically, the configuration or organization in which the preparation application is configured to present the interview screens by default may be known as the default presentation structure. While viewing the interview segments, the user may enter the necessary information (e.g., income, deductions, credits) for the completion of a return.
Preparation applications may present the various interview segments according to a static hierarchical configuration such as one or more tree structures of various topics. For example, the preparation application may navigate through a tree structure beginning with a root node. The root node may be a parent that has child nodes (e.g., income, deductions, and credits). Each child of the root node may also be a parent node. For example, “income” may be a child topic of the root “taxes” while also being a parent topic to “wages,” and “interest.” Typically, the taxonomy of the hierarchical configuration in which the preparation application adheres to may not be particularly meaningful to a user lacking knowledge of the specific taxonomy.
Furthermore, if the user would like to search for a particular topic (e.g., donating my car), the search function of the preparation application may be limited to searching within the data of the particular hierarchical configuration. Thus, to produce the most meaningful search results, the user may need to have a clear understanding of the particular accounting terms and taxonomy used throughout the hierarchical tree structure. For example, instead of searching for “donating my car,” the user may need to search using other terms such as “charitable contribution of an automobile.”